The Photograph That Became An Unintentional Cultural Icon

Adrian Covert

Fstoppers are responsible for this great video narrative, titled The Stolen Scream, which details Galai’s story, and the process of watching himself become an anonymous global icon with no control over how his image is used (in one case, the photo was attributed to someone else entirely). He even mentions that when he tried to register the photo with sites like Getty Images, they told him the image would never sell.

All in all though, it’s a great story about the dissemination of digital media over the Internet and the inevitable conflict between those who create it and those who use it, which is highlighted by this quote from Galai:

“I’m pretty sure if I took this picture 20 years ago, the only place it would be is in my room. I don’t think anyone would know about this picture.”

Galai says that National Geographic are the only organisation who actually licensed the photo. He estimates the photo has been used in 30 or 40 different countries. [Fstoppers via PetaPixel]